You can backup your Cydia apps that you’ve installed on your jailbreak iPhone, or iPad. You can backup the regular contents of your iPhone, or iPad via iTunes or iCloud, but both solutions do not support the jailbreak apps and tweak that you install from Cydia store on your jailbroken iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. But there’s a jailbreak app, available in Cydia, that allows you to backup Cydia apps, tweaks and sources on your jailbroken iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

It’s a good idea to backup all your Cydia apps and tweaks when there’s a new jailbreak available for a new firmware and you want to update to that firmware and re-jailbreak. Updating to latest firmware wipes all the jailbreak related contents available on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, including the jailbreak itself. So, if you’ve a backup of your jailbreak apps and tweaks, it’ll save you the trouble of re-installing all your favorite Cydia apps & tweaks one by one, after updating to new firmware and re-jailbreaking,

PkgBackup is a popular jailbreak app, available in Cydia, that lets you backup all the Cydia apps, tweaks and sources on any of your jailbroken iOS device. You can then save your backup on a local storage or any cloud servcie such as Dropbox, SkyDrive, etc. PkgBackup supports iOS 8 and is available in Cydia store, under BigBoss repo, for $9.99. The package gets updated regularly to quench all known bugs and to make it compatible with latest firmware, so for a longer run, $9.99 will definitely worth it.

How to backup Cydia Apps and Tweaks

These are the detailed steps to backup Cydia packages and sources on your jailbroken iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch:

Open Cydia and buy PkgBackup.

Once the PkgBackup has been installed on your device, you’ll see its icon on your Home screen. Launch the PkgBackup by tapping on its icon.

Go to Settings and choose the destination where you want to save your Cydia apps backup e.g. local storage, or the given cloud storage services..

Tap on the circular Backup button in green.

You’ll see the size of the backup. Tap the Backup button in orange below the size, next to Details.

Hit Yes to continue the backup process. Input a title and description for the backup to make it meaningful for its easier identification.

After entering a name and description, PkgBackup will begin the process of backing up you jailbreak related content. The process may take several minutes depending on the number of Cydia packages that you have installed on your device.

How to restore Cydia apps from a backup

Once you’ve updated and re-jailbreak your device on a newer firmware, it’s time to restore Cydia apps that you backed up using PkgBackup. Here’s how to restore them:

Open Cydia and install PkgBackup.

Now launch PkgBackup and tap on the Restore button (upward arrow).

The name of the available backup will be displayed above the orange Restore button. Tap on the name to see a list of packages that backup contains. To choose a different backup you want to restore from, tap on the current backup’s name at the top of the list, choose your desired backup, press Select > Close.

Tap the Restore button in orange and then confirm by pressing the Yes button on confirmation pop-up.

PkgBackup will then begin restoring your Cydia apps from selected backup. Once done, a pop-up will appear, tap the reboot button to restart your device.

Did PkgBackup work flawlessly for you? or you’re experiencing issues with it? Let us know in the comments section below…